Time For a Happy Post!

Let's talk about E! It seems like Eden is growing so fast- rapid speed compared to 32 week preemies. I haven't talked about her hardly at all since her birth, so I think this blog could use an Eden fix.

{This is my favorite pic of her}

She is 4 months old now. I can see a little bit of Silas and Jonah in her looks and her personality.

Silas and Jonah were obvious to us who they take after, but with E it's up in the air. Everyone here keeps saying she looks like Jimmy. What?! Jimmy wouldn't look good as a girl. 

I think she looks like me.

So who do you think this baby looks like?

{Daddy}

or

{Mommy}

 That was easy, her mommy of course!

Having one baby after having twins is nothing but pure enjoyment! I love it so much, I could do it a dozen more times! One baby to nurse, one baby to bathe, one baby to carry around in her little pouch. 

I don't ever have to trade babies with anyone. We get to snuggle for as long as we want! (I would NEVER trade having twins though. After you survive those first crazy 6 months it's double the fun. In fact right before E was born I was a little sad thinking the era of the twins was over.)

Eden loves bath time. She chews on her entire hand rather than a thumb or a finger, so what's better than a hand... a hand wrapped in terry cloth. She had to have a special towel like her brothers, hers is a butterfly from Kiki.

She must just like water because she loves swimming too. We took her to a nearby pool the other day and she wanted her feet free behind her to wiggle around in the water while we pulled her along. 

{After a bath, all fresh and clean!}
Eden can roll over now. At first she would get so mad after she would roll herself over.  She has never liked being on her tummy. We cannot even rock her with her laying on her tummy on our chests, she only likes to be cradled. Finally now that she can push herself up after she rolls over she has decided it's not that bad. Still she grunts a lot while she is doing it, very badly wanting to crawl. Probably won't be long. She sleeps most peacefully on her side.

I adore her chubby thighs! 

{Eden getting a checkup}

Eden weighed 15 lbs and 25.2" at her most recent checkup that put her in the 90 percentile! She is growing fast right now.

She still has her daddy's blue eyes!

It's so much fun talking to her and making her smile. 

She has just started to giggle a little bit too. 

 This little girl has no fear. She liked her swing at our forever house. Her eyes would get real big and then she would smile as she swung back and forth. 

What's even braver is living with 2 crazy little boys. Eden regularly gets pelted with foam swords, inflatable balls, and all kinds of other toys. She is starting to learn how to defend herself!

She gets tons of kisses though too. 

She really does love her brothers. 

Mommy and Daddy have to fight for her attention when her brothers are in the room. They are much more interesting!

This is Silas and Jonah sharing their (play) cellphones so that E can talk to her grandparents! They thought of that on their own, I thought it was very loving. 

Eden knows her grandparents real good already through Skype. 

{Skyping with G & MaG}

I left Eden on a blanket by herself in the office under a chain of her toys to run and put fabric softener in the laundry. I came back a minute later and found this:

Eden must have interesting toys! Or maybe they just love their sister. I will enjoy it while the harmony lasts!

Eden likes to sit or lay with her foot on someone. She likes the comfort of knowing someones there, especially when she is trying to fall asleep. Not sure why it is with her foot though. Kind of funny. We laugh when we notice it. Love her for it!

It has been interesting doing stuff with 3 kids now. This is a tough situation. Jonah and Silas still want one arm around each of them and then you have to balance E in the middle too... and turn the pages. Haha, this scene happens a lot in this house. I hope they will always love being all together!

 We love our Eden to pieces! I am so thankful that God blessed our family with this sweet little girl. I never thought I would love having a girl as much as I loved having my boys, but I do... I so do. 

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY:

 The other day at our forever house Jonah and Silas made a fun discovery.

 They could talk to each other through the pipes leading to the leach field. Uhh... gross! It hasn't been used yet. Eventually these pipes will be cut down shorter. Hope they don't try to chit chat on them after we move in! Going to have to find caps for those things.

 I couldn't hear Jonah, but Silas stuck his face down the pipe and yelled, "Hey you guys!"

Sad, Frustrated, Disappointed... All of Those Emotions

2 weeks ago Jimmy had to ask the national pastor we had been working with at the Kekchi church plant in San Pancho to step down. We had been trying to work with him on fixing some really big issues, but he wasn't having it. He had been leading the church in a direction neither we, nor the Kekchi Baptist Pastors Association agree with doctrinally. That was the main issue. Besides that he had made it clear that he was no longer committed to the mission. We regularly would show up on Sunday mornings and he had taken a job somewhere else that day in order to make money instead of preaching at the church. This was a result of the very large debt he had gotten his family into because of an investment decision he had made before we ever met him. He was actively looking for any jobs that would make him more money because of this debt and said he could be leaving at any time. A threat had been made on his life because of the amount of money he owed and who he owed it to.

This was all unexpected to us. At the beginning this pastor was passionately committed to this mission. People, and by that I mean any of us, can get caught up in the cares of this world at any time and are only a couple decisions away from missing out on God's best for our lives. He had a great family, with a great job, a great ministry, a nice house, and plenty of food to eat. Now most of that has been destroyed because of risking everything in this investment scam. He isn't the same person we first got to know. 

Jimmy thought that last Sunday morning he would be able to explain everything to the church, or at least enough to where they would understand why the decision had to be made. What we weren't counting on was the pastor trying to completely ruin the mission during the week in between. He led the lady we were renting the building from to believe we were no longer wanting it and that she should look for new renters, he had the microbus that goes by and picks up our people in SR canceled even though he knew we were going to continue having services, and then he went to SR and told all of them that Jimmy had fired him out of the blue and that he didn't know why. He even drove all the way to Sayaxché to tell the other Kekchi pastors lies about the situation. It appears that he really wanted the mission to fail without him. 

Last Sunday a group of men from SR showed up to the Bible study to speak on behalf of everyone else and let us know that they would no longer be attending the Bible study. Jimmy was able to share with them the truth, but in this culture, it is usually whichever story you hear first that sticks. Jimmy went to SR last Sunday afternoon and spoke for several hours to everyone explaining the situation. They eventually agreed with him that he had made the right decision, but they said that Jimmy should have spoke to them about it first. Jimmy apologized and said that they need to tell him anytime he goes against their culture so that he can learn to be more Kekchi. He WANTS to be more Kekchi. Most seemed to be planning on coming this Sunday, but Jimmy knew there were still a few who were apprehensive. 

This week the microbus went by like before, but no one came. Not a single person. Instead of having church this morning we took those who had come from San Pancho with us to SR to try and explain everything again. In this culture it takes several times to go over things. Lots of patience is required because they are thinkers. They like to think for a LONG time. Thankfully Domingo was here this morning along with Carlos, another national missionary who works in another part of Petén, and a young Kekchi man who will be attending the Institute this next summer to become a pastor. The 3 men who are mature Christians, have been in predicaments like this before, and are fluent in Kekchi and pretty good in Spanish were all part of God's plan. They were definitely sent by Him this morning. They went too and explained in Kekchi over and over again the story. 

We will be going again sometime this week with Domingo and Carlos for an official meeting in SR. Please pray! If this is God's will, for there to be a Kekchi church in San Pancho, pray than He would heal this mess. It was painful today to sit and listen to them talk about their allegiance to the other pastor. Is that what this was? Why does this have to be about a man? All this time we have been trying to draw them to God, never make them become attached to us. I don't get it anyway. Jimmy was preaching more than he was. I teach their children every week. I know them, love them. We are involved in so many parts of their lives beyond Sundays. We knew them first. We worked with their families for 2.5 years before this man ever came into their lives. But what trumped all of that was that we aren't Kekchi. We are foreigners. When does love start to trump ethnicity? This pastor was ready to leave them at any time for a better offer, but his word gets believed over ours because of his heart language. 

Please pray as our hearts are broken for these people. We feel that we are losing them for a second time, all because of lies. We are trying to be encouraged in that if God wasn't working then Satan wouldn't be fighting. Several were saved and being discipled as a result of this mission, so it wasn't in vain.  

The Purpose of the Institute

We have had a team here for the last week. Besides that we have been nearly overcome with issues and situations in just about all areas of our life the last 10 days. Hope this period is almost over, but it's probably not. Some things were painful but led to a purpose that God had chosen to complete in our lives and ministry. He does promise to work all things out for the good IF we are actively choosing Him.

I'll share some of the nitty gritty of mission life over the next couple posts, but first I want to share about this great team we just had. They were an evangelistic team that worked in villages with no work, a very young work, or a struggling one. 

The first day of outreach the kids and I got to go too. Usually when we don't go it is a space issue. This time since we were traveling by large boat, there was plenty of room!

{One of my children is a ham!} 

{Jonah in Daddy's hat}

It was a 2 hour boat ride to the village of San Martin. There has been a mission there for 7 years. Just to be clear, we call church plants "missions" until they become self supporting with a pastor and then they are a "church". 

This mission is so difficult to get to that Domingo hasn't been in 4 years. They do not have a pastor, only a "man in charge" who listens to the Kekchi Baptist radio station and then preaches what he learns. It is a very small mission because of this. The purpose of the institute (KBI) is to train men who have been called to preach to go pastor new or even struggling missions like these so that they can disciple more believers. 

The mission had a meal ready for us when we arrived. The team left an offering to cover the chickens we ate. This was the team's first caldo meal! 

Some were fans, some where not. I think it's truly delicious. This caldo had rice and white potatoes in it which the Kekchi call "the foreigner's sweet potatoes". It isn't very common in caldo. 

My boys are fans!

This was the team's first experience with other things too!

{The line for the bathroom!}

 The ladies were so sweet to Eden. Do you see how fat she is now?! Fat is good for her little growing brain, so I'm happy! Full term babies are SO different from preemies. 

 This is the first team we have ever had that learned songs in Kekchi. The people really liked it. I thought it was sweet!

At first the people from the village were a little shy, but they eventually came inside.

 The team had a wordless skit and then shared some testimonies. Pastor Rick finished it off with a clear presentation of the Gospel. 

Pastor Rick came down 2 Christmases ago to teach a KBI module. It meant a lot to us that he wanted to come back and bring people form his church this time to see the work here too. 

{Silas & Jonah making friends}

Our time was short, it was hard to leave. 

 Several walked down to the river bank to see us off. 

 The team sang most of the way back down the river. 

 Jonah sat next to pastor Rick the whole time he was playing the guitar. Jonah loves making music. This team was so sweet to my boys. I was so grateful for that! 

Please pray for the village of San Martin. Pray that God will call a national pastor to work with them and that more people will come to know the Lord there and grow in their relationship with Him.

Our Second Attempt

Remember this post:

It was our first attempt at making it to the village of Pasión. This is where Domingo has recently started a new mission. Jimmy tried to take the last team there to show a movie. It is a young work, so there are very few Christians in this village. A movie in Kekchi is an effective way to present the Gospel to the whole town. 

Jimmy got stuck in the bog pit within sight of the village. In fact, all the men in the photo above are from there. They were very sweet to help him out. It was a several hour ordeal of bonding in the mud! We wanted to make sure we went back quick, so we tried again a couple days after the team left. 

This time we went by boat down the Passion River!

It was an hour long trip up the river, but only half an hour coming back. 

{Jimmy letting me wear his hat}

{Eden & I with the boys & Samuel,  Domingo's son}

The boys were excited about the boat ride, but after the village sent pops for us, I think those became the most exciting thing.

Once we got there is was a pretty muddy climb up the bank. 

6 years of hiking and mud and I still only own flip flops. I'm so vain! If I could find a feminine looking pair of off road shoes I would buy them.

Eden and I made it just fine. So did the boys. They love the adventure!

Eden was the only one not pink by the end of the day since I kept her under a towel. 

We love going places as a family. The boys are at an age now that it is getting easier and easier for us all to go. I think people are quicker to talk to us too when they see us as a family unit, like theirs. 

We had a great turn out for the movie. It took this photo soon after it started, so even more showed up.

{Samuel, Silas, & Jonah waiting for the movie to start}

Afterwards the same lady that fed the team prepared us a meal. It was some of the spiciest caldo I have had to date. Wow! It was good. Eden wasn't a fan later but the rest of us liked it!

{Silas out in front leading the way!}

Please pray for this village as the Gospel continues to be shared. Pray that many more will come to find hope in Jesus Christ! 

CRAZY ITEM OF THE DAY: We decided if Papa was a horse this is where we would find him! It's the smartest horse in all of Petén. No idea where he came from or how he made it out there into the water, there weren't any villages or people around. Makes sense to me though! It is so crazy hot here right now.